Rumour update "Summer of Flyers"

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**Kroothawk**

Hi,

yes, these bunch of rumours are by stickmonkey, who sometimes is fed wrong rumours but is one of the few who posts rumours on things several months ahead. So take all the salt you need and enjoy these:

SM here, I debated posting anything, but some others have persuaded me. I have just a few things for the rumored summer of fliers I first mentioned here.

Still rumored as July wd rule set
Apoc style rules, strafing/bombing runs, rapid insertion/extraction, special missions, dogfighting?
Thunder hawk is NOT likely
Codex based releases...
Dark eldar raven
Eldar night wing?
Ig hydra
Nid harpy
Non codex releases...
Ig thunderbolt
Csm hell blade
Tau remora
No necron release?
Ork fighta/bomma
No SM release?

Suspected non codex releases will only be rules...models already FW...

Necrons may get something with their codex.

Raven/night wing likely to be combined kit.

So that's pretty limited, 3 kits and wd rules. But it sounds like it's in the typical wheelhouse.

Probably disappointing news to many, but in light of some of the other speculation running I decided to put some info out.

BTW some flyers are confirmed (BA/GK, DE), others have been seen in the works, and with GW doing only 2-3 Codices/armybooks per year, they HAVE to fill the other months with something

A comment/clarification by stickmonkey:

First, as I alluded to in my op, the models specifically tied to this are "codex" models...the others being available already from FW. Gw and FW have seen a much tighter integration over the past year, and it makes soo much sense to use WD and a simple "Flyer" article to market all the available kits as well as new ones. It's a synergistic strategy capitalizing on new and old model sales and support sales across all codex lines.

Second, the night wing/razor wing are not large models, they are slightly smaller than a valk, so well within existing wheelhouses, at least in terms of bulk...they may be longer, but definitely sleeker. The hydra is essentially one more sprue and a chimera. And the harpy is not much bigger than a carnifex or trygon. So saying they are going nuts with these, I repeat, "rumored" releases is a bit of a stretch.

Last, while I coined it summer of flyers, that was mostly in homage to what the spearhead article was like. Let me set the record right now that that should be the standard of the scale here. A wd semi dedicated to just 40k flyers and some special rules/missions. Anyone reading more into it and hoping for orcas in plastic and ginormous plastics thunderhawks better go have a sanity check. Heck, even Bols is now publishing articles about a "Summer of flyers". It's just a catchy reference, but it is starting to lead to a bit of overblown expectations.

Small update by stickmonkey:

There is a concern that the quality of a few models is not where they want it to be. Most prominently the eldar flyer having too delicate of pieces as currently designed. If the models don't all pass QA this week, it is likely this project will either be pushed back or tabled.

Funny, shouldn't quality control be already done long ago?

Another rumour update by Hendarion over at Warseer:

Update:
The Nightwing and Razorwing will not receive a combi-kit. (...)
Meaning there will be no kit that combines both flyers in one box. Not more and not less.
So it might mean there will be a single kit for each, it might mean there might be only one of the two flyers or even none. (...)
Direct information from someone being involved in the design-process.
The reason for no combi-kit is obvious. Although they look similar, they are still distinct and it won't make sense to merge them.

Captain Ventris over at Warseer posted the working name of this expansion:

40K Expansion: Wartorn Skies-July(...)
Yes, 40K Expansion: Wartorn Skies will be an expansion supposedly done as a White Dwarf Expansion similar to Spearhead however will have actual models released with it.

Wartorn Skies is the working name for the expansion and will likely be kept, but as its a White Dwarf expansion, they can easily change it out before going to the printer...

Fits with 2nd wave Dark Eldar in June, which should include the flyers in June or July.

Here a nice most probably faked box art for a possible Thunderbolt floating the internet for some time:

**BrassScorpion**

This kind of blows away a major part of the rumors that have been circulating for months that every army would be getting a new flier model.

**shrike**

All I wanted was a decent stormraven...WHY, GW?! WHY?!

**lord_blackfang**

I would buy as many plastic Fighta-Bommas as I could fit in my apartment. Alas...

**Kilkrazy**

If true, the Summer of Fliers is going to be more like a Summer of Damp Squibs.

**Lord PoPo**

Can we just bring back battlefleet Gothic and keep 40k a game for ground pounders? Please?

**Reecius**

I like the rumors, personally. At the least it means more cool new kits and at best, a whole new way to play the game.

**Kilkrazy**

Reecius wrote:I like the rumors, personally. At the least it means more cool new kits and at best, a whole new way to play the game.

It depends who you are.

As a Tau army owner, I can tell you that the prospect of a fat drone with two burst cannons, which I can already get off Forge World or convert, does not make the Earth move for me.

The last thing I need is for a lot of other armies to get even more good stuff, and the excuse of official rules to use it, while I limp along with a four year old codex that was second tier when it was new.

**Necros**

Looking forward to the hydra if it's true.. wonder if the comment about no necron stuff mean no necron flyers, or no necron codex at all this summer?

**BrookM**

Hydra cha cha cha! Thunderbolt cha cha cha! I'll have a squadron of each please when they go live!

**CaptKaruthors**

I'm looking forward to the DE flyers. I'm too lazy to convert my own and based on the initial DE models, I'm sure they'll be awesome.

**ChiliPowderKeg**

The Remora eh...

*sigh* If I may ask a question commonly asked from when it was originally released, "Do we really need this?"

**BrookM**

The Remora is a bit of a surprise, but seeing as the source has a taint to him/herself, I'm going to cling to the idea we might still be getting the Barracuda instead.

**lasgunpacker**

The Barracuda does seem more likely, the Remora is just too small.

**Kanluwen**

BrookM wrote:The Remora is a bit of a surprise, but seeing as the source has a taint to him/herself, I'm going to cling to the idea we might still be getting the Barracuda instead.

I dunno. The Remora comes as a surprise, but it does make a kind of sense. And it's a lot bigger than people seem to think.

I can almost see them doing the Remora as a package deal of two or more in a box, maybe.

**Skarboy**

I sure hope I get the Voidraven/Razorwing before July...

**BrookM**

If it's going to be a little fishy then chances are, one per box at Sentinel pricing.

**Necros**

So remora = tau jetbike?

I really love/hate how just when I think I'm getting to the point where an army is "done" and I don't need anything new, they go and do something like this.

At least I still have an extra kidney I can sell just in case...

**BrookM**

The elderly are weak and an easy source of money. You know this to be true.

**Kroothawk**

BrookM wrote:The Remora is a bit of a surprise, but seeing as the source has a taint to him/herself, I'm going to cling to the idea we might still be getting the Barracuda instead.

Acording to him, the Remora is in the "rules only" section with no new GW model, so there is still hope for the Barracuda.

**Death By Monkeys**

Uh, did you guys miss the part of the rumor that said that non-codex releases would be rules only, not GW models as FW's already got the models?

Don't get me wrong - I would love to buy as many Thunderbolts as lord_blackfang would Fighta-Bommas. And I've been really hopeful that we would see a Thunderbolt kit. But if we are to believe this last set of rumors, we won't have to worry about either Remoras or Thunderbolts in plastic.

Frankly, it seems to me that it makes for an extremely weak rumor. So, what? The flyers rules would give a ruleset for aerial combat and then reprint the sucky FW rules for the models they've already made? That'd be superweaksauce.

**chaos0xomega**

Meh, its Stickmonkey, I don't really believe it, some things are a bit out of left field (the whole summer of flyers concept is out of left field, and started purely as speculation that w/ all the flyers being put into codecies, they would eventually release an air combat expansion), but this sounds a lot more realistic than the previous "every army would get a flyer" rumor.

**H.B.M.C.**

Rules only.
No model.

Summer of LAME.

**Eldar Own**

The ork fighta bomma does sond very cool indeed, if these rumours are all true, i'll be getting this first. The eldar night wing would be cool too. No interest in the harpy though.

Do you know if these will be coming with official rules in WD, like they did with spearhead and the eldar night spinner?

**BrassScorpion**

this sounds a lot more realistic than the previous "every army would get a flyer" rumor.

A lot more realistic and a lot less exciting. I have a couple Hellblades I bought a few years ago, but no way I'm loading up on more Forge World models for this. Now if they do release a bunch of regular GW kits for some of these, then I might buy a pile of new models.

**JOHIRA**

Kilkrazy wrote:As a Tau army owner, I can tell you that the prospect of a fat drone with two burst cannons, which I can already get off Forge World or convert, does not make the Earth move for me.

This. They picked the least inspiring Tau model for us. For a faction where literally 1 fourth of their population is engaged in aircraft/space-related operations, let's release a goofy drone!

H.M.B.C wrote:Rules only.
No model.

Summer of LAME.

Oh, well that solves that problem then.

This could be the first time that GW will solve one disappointment by offering a bigger disappointment.

**Howard A Treesong**

Lots of Xenos and no Space Marines? Seems a bit unlikely.

Come on GW, we all want a Thunderhawk. Just make one, it would sell more than all of that lot.

**BrassScorpion**

It will save me and a lot of people a lot of money if there are hardly any new model kits this summer, so maybe it's a good thing.

**Platuan4th**

If that's really all the releases, I'll grab a Harpy and Nightwing just cause.

Overall, meh if true. I'm sure I'll try it for a few games, but not all that excited anymore.

**Karon**

Grabbing...37 Harpies?